The obvious truth is that we really
don't know when Pedro Martinez is coming back, or if he will return at all, and
even then there are no guarantees. After all, the Red Sox do not merely need
Martinez if they are to make a run at their first world title in 83 years. They
need a healthy Martinez, the Martinez of old, the winner of two consecutive Cy
Young Awards and three in the last four years.

While the rest of the team traveled to
Montreal for a three-game series against the Expos beginning this afternoon,
pitchers Pedro Martinez and Frank Castillo, shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, center
fielder Carl Everett and third baseman John Valentin headed back to Boston.
Trainer Chris Correnti accompanied the disabled players, who will continue their
rehabilitation at Fenway Park.

So, what chance do the Red Sox have of
remaining in the race if Pedro Martinez is out until Sept. 1?

''I think they're done,'' said one
major league executive. ''... But if they're still in it without Pedro, then
maybe they're the greatest team that ever played.'' ...

Mark Shapiro, the assistant general
manager of the Cleveland Indians who already has been announced as John Hart's
successor: ''They've already defied all logic. Everything you wouldn't want to
happen to your team has happened to them. ... But considering everything they've
already survived, I would never say they're out of it without Pedro.''

The only thing that would have been
funnier than watching portly reliever Rich Garces swing the bat would be
watching him run the bases. Because neither happened Friday night, Dante
Bichette called it the most disappointing moment of the season.

Nomar Garciaparra walked around the
batting cages, fresh off a 15-swing test of his surgically repaired right wrist.
Jason Varitek, his baby girl cradled in his left arm and a metal brace on his
right, sat in the dugout talking to Carl Everett.

Rolando Viera In the 50-round draft,
the Red Sox used a seventh-round pick on Viera, the intriguing left-hander that
no teams had gotten a chance to scout or contact since he arrived in the U.S. in
late April. There is just problem with (Ray) Poitevint's scouting report. Viera
said he has never been to Mexico, nor even played for Cuba's national team.

Stephen Cannella
2. Manny Ramirez won't hit. But only
because no one will pitch to him. Ramirez already has 20 intentional walks,
putting him in line to break the AL single-season record of 33, set by Ted
Williams in 1957.
3. Luis Gonzalez will be NL MVP.
5. Pedro Martinez won't win the Cy
Young award.

Rich Garces got to bat last night. Or,
at least, to stand in the batter's box. He wound up taking what amounted to an
intentional strikeout against Mets reliever Rick White. “They asked me what I
wanted to do,” Garces said, “and I didn't want to swing the bat. It was
pretty good, though, seeing 90-mile-an-hour pitches right down the middle of the
plate.”

"He's much less tender at this
point in time," said Dr. Bill Morgan after the exam. "He shut it down
for his upper extremities for the last two weeks. He has good motion. He has no
tenderness. His strength is improved from when he left (to go home). (But) at
this point in time, he has not been on any strengthening of his shoulder over
the last two weeks, so we're going to begin a shoulder program, for the rotator
cuff specifically, for 7 to 10 days. When he feels strong enough, we're going to
progress him into a graduated throwing program -- long toss, etc., over the next
several weeks. ... I think we're looking at 4 to 6 weeks, but again, much of
that's going to be dependent on how he responds."

Shortly after the Sox resumed the 2001
season with a 4-2 loss against the New York Mets at Shea Stadium, Morgan
acknowledged that the inimitable ace of the Red Sox will be out at least an
additional month with an injury to his golden right arm. Following the game,
Martinez vowed to do everything in his power to return to form before the end of
this season, but made no promises.

..."I'm not going to put my career
at risk. I'm just going to do whatever I can to get back as soon as possible,''
Martinez continued. "If I feel fine, I'm going to pitch. If not, I'm going
to shut it down. So far, it looks like I'm going to pitch. Are you praying?''

Red Sox Team Doctor Bill Morgan said
ace Pedro Martinez is at least a month away from pitching in game competition.
...

"I think we're looking at four to
six weeks," Morgan said when asked when the right-hander could return to
the Sox rotation. Morgan emphasized that the pitcher would have to progress
successfully through several steps before returning. "At this point in
time, he has not done any strengthening of his shoulder over the last two weeks.
He has done no work on his upper extremities. So, we're going to begin a
shoulder [conditioning] program. If his rotator cuff responds to the treatment
for seven to 10 days, then we'll progress to a graduated throwing program, long
toss, etc."

In another jarring blow to the Red Sox,
team physician Bill Morgan said last night their franchise pitcher, Pedro
Martinez, could be sidelined until Sept. 1, if not longer, by the injury to his
right rotator cuff.

Dr. Bill Morgan said he is encouraged
by the progress Martinez has made since he went on the disabled list June 27. He
has not thrown since. "He's much less tender at this point in time,"
Morgan said. "He's shut it down for his upper extremities over the last two
weeks. He's been working on lowers, aerobics. He has good motion. He has no
tenderness. His strength has improved from when he left."

There were Red Sox in and around the
batting cage, Red Sox in the outfield, Red Sox in the bullpen, Red Sox
everywhere. It was four hours before last night's game with the Mets, and the
Red Sox, the battered, resilient Red Sox, already had about 15 players in
uniform who looked ready and able to grind through the second half of the
season.

A lot of people in New York wrote off
David Cone last winter, but the veteran right-hander wasn't eager to declare
vindication yesterday. More than anything else, Cone was psyched to start a game
at his old haunt for the first time in almost a decade. "I pitch every game
these days like it's my last start," said Cone, who starts for the Red Sox
today.

Israel Cristostomo Alcantara sits alone
at a desk in the corner of the Pawtucket Red Sox clubhouse. It is four hours
before Thursday night's game with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons and the
28-year-old outfielder is autographing baseball cards.

It is difficult to pinpoint the exact
moment at which the concept of pace got introduced to the world of sports, but
the smart money says it was in the fifth inning of a game between two last-place
baseball teams somewhere deep in the heart of August, when a broadcaster ran out
of things to say and suddenly burped, "Y'know, at this pace Rawlins is
going to wind up throwing 238 pitches in seven innings."

Thus was born a cottage industry built
almost entirely upon a fraudulent premise. And nowhere is that notion more
forcefully advanced than in baseball, a sport whose sheer scope and grindability
(to invent a word) absolutely mocks the idea that a player's pace through the
early months of the season could possibly hold up through July, August and
September.

There is a tendency to attribute jumps
in batting average as flukes, while praising comparable jumps in walk rate as
improved plate discipline. ... In order to determine whether we have a fluke or
an actual change in skill we need to define several data points:

1. an established level of skill
2. a "spike" season with a sudden and large change in that level
3. a new level of performance going forward

Debates about defense in baseball can
be extremely contentious and frustrating. There's very little in the way of a
generally accepted canon of evidence upon which people will agree, and a great
deal of weight is place on personal observation. That makes it very difficult to
question someone's position about a particular player without at least
implicitly impugning their observation ability. I've seen grown, mature men
nearly come to blows over the defensive prowess of Corey Koskie. Arguments over
defense can even ruin a romantic cruise.

With half the season down and the good
half to go, the Baseball Prospectus staff has assembled its mid-season awards.
Take these with a few grains of salt, and enjoy the second half of the season.
[Includes total votes and writers' individual comments and ballots.]

Thursday's Notebook includes Art's
thoughts on a 6-man Sox rotation and "a little explanation about the Trot
Nixon/Carl Everett controversy." Included is the original Projo article
that ignited the controversy -- but was never placed on the newspaper's website.
Art's comments are simply one more reason why his Notebooks are essential
reading for any Red Sox or baseball fan.

Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez, who has
spent the past week in the Dominican Republic, is scheduled to join the team
today in New York and begin his rehabilitation. He will not throw a baseball.

There was some confusion whether
Martinez would begin throwing sooner than originally expected after a story in
the Boston Globe on Monday that was picked up by The Courant.

The Boston Globe misidentified the
reporter as Enrique Rojas, sports editor for Ultima Hora and a stringer for the
Associated Press. The reporter quoted was actually Franklin Mirabel, sports
editor for Hoy. Mirabel, one of two reporters to interview Martinez, told Globe
reporter Gordon Edes that Martinez was hoping to throw a bullpen session either
today or Friday.

Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette
refuted the story, telling a Boston television station that Martinez will
probably need a couple weeks of strengthening exercises before he throws again.
Martinez confirmed that to the Globe. Red Sox officials claim they had no idea
Martinez went home last week.

Perhaps by nightfall, the Boston Red
Sox and Pedro Martinez will have a more definite timetable for the ace pitcher's
return. The news may not be cause to rejoice, but at least the versions of
Martinez and his team may match, giving everyone a better idea of how long the
Red Sox will have to compete for the American League East title without him.

The frenzy of speculation about
Martinez' health is a perfectly natural phenomenon. It matters to an entire
community. ... So everyone involved with the Red Sox is going to guess how
Pedro's feeling. Some of those people are closer to the situation than others,
and their guesses end up as stories in the papers, and on radio and TV. And
that's fine, as long as we all remember those stories are just guesses, more or
less educated ones.

In four decades of communism-style
baseball on this island nation, perhaps no pitcher ever has been so gifted as
Rolando Viera, a crafty left-hander who pitched for six seasons for the most
prominent team, Havana Industriales, at the highest level of Cuban baseball, the
National Series. [Viera was drafted by the Red Sox.]

2. Pedro Martinez. The date of his
return is uncertain, but the Red Sox's next 24 games are against teams with
sub-.500 records. After that, they visit the A's, a team one game over .500, and
Orioles, a team seven under.

By the time that stretch is complete,
it will be Aug. 14. Barring setbacks, Martinez, shortstop Nomar Garciaparra and
center fielder Carl Everett all should be recovered by then. And the Red Sox
still could enter September in excellent position.

One note of caution, at least with
regard to the division race: The Yankees have 12 games remaining against the
Devil Rays, the Red Sox only six. The two AL East leaders are a combined 17-3
against Tampa Bay this season.

Manny Ramirez, who struck out on three
pitches against Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks, gave conflicting
stories on why he missed Monday's activities.

He told one group of reporters that his
grandmother was ''kind of sick,'' another group that his grandmother had died,
even going so far as spelling his grandmother's name for one reporter and giving
her age to another. He said he felt obligated to come because he was the only
Sox representative.

But his agent, Jeff Moorad, and
Moorad's associate, Gene Mato, had said nothing about Ramirez's grandmother
Monday, when they offered the explanation that Ramirez had skipped the flight
the Sox had arranged for him on Sunday night and flew out on a private plane on
Monday in order to tend to some personal business that involved a stopover in
New York. Yesterday, Ramirez didn't arrive at the ballpark until almost 2:30
p.m. and said that he had flown to Miami, contradicting his agents.

Pedro Martínez will be in New York
tomorrow with the Red Sox to start strengthening his inflamed right shoulder.
But his regimen will not include throwing a baseball.

“He's not going to throw in New York,”
general manager Dan Duquette told WBZ-TV. “He's going to strengthen his
shoulder for a period of time and, after that, he'll resume his throwing. We're
going to be conservative in terms of making sure his shoulder is strong again
before he goes out and pitches."

When asked about the hopes of the Red
Sox in the second half of the season, veteran slugger Dante Bichette speaks for
everyone in the Boston clubhouse.

"The way I look at it, when we get
Nomar [Garciaparra], Pedro [Martínez], Carl [Everett] and Jason [Varitek] back,
I don't know if there's a team out there that can possibly make a deal to
compare with that. I think everyone in here is looking forward to getting those
guys back and licking their chops, waiting on what the results will be
like."

They call them jackets. You're slapped
with one the moment you get into baseball. It might be right. It might be
completely wrong. But the tag sticks with you.

Cal Ripken is a great guy. Barry Bonds
is a bad guy. Tony Gwynn is a saint. John Rocker is the devil. Greg Maddux is a
genius. Manny Ramirez is slow. Ellis Burks is a clubhouse leader. Carl Everett
is a cancer. Mark McGwire is a clubbie's dream. Sammy Sosa is high-maintenance.
Paul O'Neill cares too much. Todd Zeile cares too little.

Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette
said that there is no truth to a published report that Pedro Martínez will
resume throwing on Thursday and could be activated from the disabled list before
the end of the month. Contrary to a report in the Boston Globe, Duquette said
that Martínez is still weeks away from picking up a baseball because of the
rest required for the inflammation in his right rotator cuff.

Pedro Martínez, reached by phone in
the Dominican Republic yesterday afternoon ... refuted a report in yesterday's
Globe quoting a Dominican writer as saying that Martínez would be throwing a
bullpen session in New York upon his return.

''I've been working like a dog,'' Martínez
said. ''But I will not be throwing a bullpen [session] or anything. I'm going to
get my rehabilitation work done. I will be going over my program on Thursday
about the exercises that I have to do. 'I'm going to do my program and see what
happens. Right now, I'm doing a lot of work with my lower body and resting my
arm, letting the inflammation come down. But I am not exercising my shoulder
yet.''

This is what happens when Pedro Martínez
disappears to the Dominican Republic and Red Sox officials say they had no idea
about the trip. ...

"He is very happy with the way he
feels and he says he's going to surprise people," said Enrique Rojas,
sports editor of the Ultima Hora. "The swelling in his shoulder has gone
down, he's been doing a lot of swimming, and he told me that he will throw a
bullpen [session] either Thursday or Friday. If that goes well, he is hoping to
pitch again by the following Thursday or Friday."

After his longest live batting practice
session Sunday at Fenway Park, Nomar Garciaparra said he was feeling better. But
the shortstop still didn't want to hazard a guess as to when he would be ready
to begin a formal rehab program -- one that would involve playing in games.

... "I took about 30 pitches of
[batting practice] today and did pretty good," said Garciaparra, who hit
several balls into the screen above the Green Monster. "I've taken the
grounders, threw pretty good today. I'm making progress and that's the important
thing."

General Manager Dan Duquette said
Saturday he anticipated the Red Sox shortstop would begin a rehab program
"very shortly" after the All-Star break -- likely either in Pawtucket
or Lowell.

Manny Ramirez's All-Star moment came
and went without him yesterday. The Red Sox outfielder did not take the Sunday
night flight from Boston arranged for him by the Red Sox. He had personal
business in Boston and New York to tend to, agent Jeff Moorad said, and flew
here yesterday on a private plane with his uncle, according to Moorad's
associate, Gene Mato.

Manny Ramirez, the Boston Red Sox's
lone representative to the 72nd All-Star Game, was a no-show yesterday. Ramirez
reportedly had personal business at home in Florida to attend to and was
expected in last night.

Something, apparently, may have been
lost in the original translation, but the journalist who last week interviewed
Pedro Martínez in the Dominican Republic said here yesterday that the Sox ace
told him he intends to resume throwing with a bullpen session in New York when
the Sox open the second half against the Mets in Shea Stadium Thursday.

Enrique Rojas, the veteran columnist
and sports editor of Ultima Hora, a daily newspaper based in the Dominican
capital of Santo Domingo, said Martínez's remarks were misconstrued in
wire-service reports of an interview Rojas conducted with Martínez last week.

Garciaparra will begin a rehab
assignment in the minors shortly after the All-Star break. He will probably work
out with the Red Sox at Shea Stadium later this week and could begin his rehab
with the Double A Trenton Thunder, who are home July 12-19.

Garciaparra shouldn't need to play more
than five games in rehab, so he could be activated July 20 and join the team in
Chicago for a three-game series against the White Sox. Barring any setbacks,
Garciaparra should be back by July 24, when the Red Sox return from an 11-game
trip to play Toronto to start a 13-game homestand.

"There's still a lot of stuff I
have to work on, but to be able to come back today and put in a second straight
good, hard workout was encouraging," said Garciaparra, who underwent wrist
surgery April 2. "Until now, if I'd had a hard workout one day, there was
some soreness the next day.

... A return in July, which has been
suggested by general manager Dan Duquette, now seems possible. In the past two
weeks, Garciaparra's teammates begun talking openly about his return, a prospect
that has eased the sting of some other bad news, notably the injury to Pedro Martínez.

When they left spring training slightly
more than three months ago, the Red Sox did so without Nomar Garciaparra. By the
time the first half ended yesterday, Pedro Martínez, Frank Castillo, Jason
Varitek, Carl Everett and Rich Garces, among others, all had joined Garciaparra
on the disabled list. Through it all, the train kept a rollin'.

Dan Duquette joked that he was glad
that outfielder Manny Ramirez had been elected to the A.L. All-Star team
"because I was afraid that Joe [Torre] might take Chuck Knoblauch
instead." Torre has been criticized for selecting seven of his own players
for Tuesday's game.

Even for the Red Sox, a tropical island
would be one hell of a place to lose a pennant. ... This reporter believes
there's too much doomsaying about this most satisfactory Red Sox outfit. So
let's be optimists. As much as we can and stay real, that is.

Some of the mystery surrounding Pedro Martínez
was resolved yesterday as general manager Dan Duquette said the ace
will begin an active rehabilitation program Thursday when he rejoins the Sox in
New York as they open the second half of their season against the Mets.

Pedro Martínez said that he believes he
will need at least a month, rather than two weeks, of rest before he will be
able to return to action with the Red Sox. ...

"I don't think we know how long
Pedro is going to be out, I don't think anyone knows how long Pedro is going to
be out, I don't think Pedro knows how long he is going to be out,'' Red Sox
general manager Dan Duquette said last night. "Right now, he's in the
resting stage.'' ...

WBZ-TV reported last night that sources
in the Red Sox clubhouse said Martínez may not be back until September.

Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martínez said
Friday he will take off the entire month of July to rest his right shoulder. ...
"He can't pitch right now so he might as well relax and enjoy life,"
Jimy Williams said on Friday before Boston's game with Atlanta at Fenway Park.

Pedro Martínez will take off the entire
month of July to rest his ailing right shoulder, he said Friday.

"The reality is that I will need
30 full days of rest instead of 15," Martínez told the Dominican newspaper
Ultima Hora. "I prefer to wait a bit more and return with my arm in good
shape."

... Martínez, who has recently been
home in the Dominican Republic, will rejoin the Red Sox in New York next week
when they begin a series against the Mets. "He'll be in New York on
Thursday and he'll meet with our doctors there," Red Sox general manager
Dan Duquette said Friday night.

The Red Sox left town without him late
last Thursday, but Pedro Martínez won't be waiting at Fenway Park today when the
team opens a weekend series against the Atlanta Braves. Martínez will instead
remain in his native Dominican Republic, where he returned earlier this week to
rest and rehabilitate his ailing right shoulder. ...

According to very reliable sources
familiar with the player's condition, Martínez received confirmation from Los
Angeles-based specialist Dr. Lewis Yocum yesterday that he is suffering from
inflammation of the rotator cuff in his right shoulder. Supporting the diagnosis
of Red Sox team doctor Bill Morgan, Yocum has advised the pitcher to continue
resting his arm.

Pedro Martínez isn't expected to throw
today when the Red Sox open a three-game series with the Atlanta Braves,
Williams said. The ace right-hander hasn't thrown since June 26, when he had to
leave a start against Tampa Bay after only 4.2 innings because of shoulder pain.
Martínez, who was placed on the disabled list the following day, is suffering
from an inflamed right rotator cuff.

Pedro Martínez, who has not thrown
since June 26, the day before he went on the disabled list with an inflamed
rotator cuff, will not throw at Fenway Park this afternoon when the Sox return
to play the Atlanta Braves. ... The longer Martínez goes without throwing, the
longer it will be before he comes back. Last year when he went on the DL, he was
throwing again within seven days, according to Joe Kerrigan, who said he planned
to call Martínez after last night's game.

For Nomar Garciaparra, five swings in
batting practice yesterday marked a major step forward in his long recovery from
a wrist injury which required surgery April 2. Garciaparra took his swings in
the batting cage yesterday afternoon at Jacobs Field. He also took 25 swings in
a soft-toss workout with physical therapist B.J. Baker, and did fielding and
throwing from the shortstop position.

Pawtucket Red Sox outfielder Izzy
Alcantara has been suspended for six games for his part in a bench-clearing
brawl in a game against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons earlier this week.
[PawSox coverage from The Providence
Journal]

[T]he most impressive young rotation
has to be the 1912-16 Red Sox, who won three World Series in five years, each
time with a rotation younger than the Marlins' staff of today. Think about that
for a moment.

For any contrarians out there that want
to make a claim for anyone other than Babe Ruth as the greatest player of all
time, you would do well to contemplate Ruth's position as the junior member of
two of the three youngest World Champion rotations of all time. Before Ruth
turned 24 years old, he had won 80 games--only Bob Feller and Dwight Gooden have
matched that feat since--and three World Championships.

[T]he omission of Greg Maddux is one of
the all-time bad jokes of the process, and a really good argument for ignoring
"All-Star appearances" when we get around to evaluating the careers of
late-20th- and early-21st-century players. ...

One of the hoary sayings in baseball is
that if you're on first place on July 4, you'll be there at the end of the year.
... which division leaders will be there when the season is done?

AL East: Predicting whether this July 4
leader is going to make it to the finish line in first place is complicated by
the gaping unknowns the Red Sox face. If they get Garciaparra and Pedro Martínez
healthy, and the two players play at their established level, they will win the
division. If they don't, the Yankees will. ... Gun at my head, I think the Sox
will get enough from their two wounded soldiers to win the division, leaving the
Yankees to battle the AL Central runner-up for the wild card.

Frankly, this is one of those
situations where the Commissioner's Office should have stepped in and said,
"You know what, Joe? We know that you're a loyal guy, and we know that your
owner and your players want you to select as many Yankees as you can. So we'll
take some of the heat off you, and exercise our rights by 'helping' you choose
the All-Star reserves."

An old baseball adage holds that teams
in first place on July 4 are headed to the postseason. Is it true? The numbers
say it usually is.

In the six seasons since the wild-card
playoff format was first adopted in 1995, the 38 teams leading their divisions
or tied for the lead on July 4 have gone on to win the division 26 times. That's
a 68 percent success rate. And if you throw out the Pirates and Cardinals, who
were tied for first in the NL Central on Independence Day 1997 but both finished
out of the money, no team leading by three games or more on July 4 during that
span has ever ended the season out of first place.

Williams confirmed that while Martínez
is eligible to come off the disabled list on July 12, the date of the first game
after the All-Star break, he's likely to be out of action longer. Martínez hasn't picked up a ball since being placed on the DL on June 27. ...

"He'll need side sessions (before
he can return)," said Williams. "He hasn't even started playing catch
yet. Then he has to do long toss before you get him up on the mound. How far
away is he? I don't know."

As an anxious fandom waited and hoped,
Red Sox manager Jimy Williams yesterday all but acknowledged for the first time
that Pedro Martínez will not return to the starting rotation promptly after the
All-Star break. ...

Pitching coach Joe Kerrigan said
recently that Martínez would not throw for the first seven to 10 days after he
went on the DL. But Williams indicated the layoff could lengthen. Today marks
the eighth day since Martínez went on the DL, and he had not thrown a ball as of
yesterday. ... Martínez, who was passed over for an All-Star team for the first
time in six years because of his injury, is not traveling with the team.

The Red Sox continue to play wait and
see on the medical condition of Pedro Martínez. Martínez, who last pitched June
26 against Tampa Bay, was put on the disabled list the next day with right
shoulder strain and inflammation. An MRI, CT scan and arthrogram showed an
inflammation of Martínez' right rotator cuff, but no tear. The club has
encouraged the right-hander to seek a second opinion.

"I haven't heard anything new with
Pedro," related Sox Manager Jimy Williams Wednesday. "We just need to
get it right. If it means he has to stop throwing for a while to get it right,
that's what has to be done. I know he hasn't started throwing yet. He needs
[side throwing sessions]. He hasn't even started playing catch yet. You got to
play catch, then you get into long catch, then long toss, before you even get on
the mound. It's a minimum 15 days, and then it's day-to-day after that."

Will this year's annual Pedro Martínez
injury be any more worrisome than the previous two? Too early to say. But one
scout who watched Pedro recently was concerned by what he saw.

"What scared me was his arm
angle," the scout said. "He threw a lot of pitches from that
three-quarter (sidearm) slot. You could tell he was hurting. You just worry that
with his physique and all the torque on his delivery, it's a lot of strain on a
little guy." ...

The Red Sox' least-favorite midseason
tradition kicked off this week -- the great Pedro on the DL. They went 6-5 while
he was on the DL last year, 6-7 the year before. Their two-year winning
percentage when he was active: .567 (167-133). And when he wasn't: .500 (12-12).

I can think of no greater Red Sox fan's
nightmare this season than having Pedro Martínez, Nomar Garciaparra, Carl
Everett, Jason Varitek, John Valentin, Frank Castillo and Rich Garces on the DL.
...

Second-half keys -- AL East -- Pedro Martínez, Boston: He must be totally healthy. The Red Sox need him down the
stretch to close out the division. They are winning now with glue, paste and
baling wire. If Williams can keep pushing them to the All-Star Game and a little
beyond, the Red Sox will be fine, especially as they start getting players back
one by one, including Martínez and Nomar. If they don't get Martínez and other
key players back, the Yankees will leave them in the dust.

We have no problems with Joe Torre
supporting his players, but it does seem a little odd that the team with the
third-best record in the American League has one-fourth of the 28 AL All-Stars.
The Yankees entered Wednesday one-half game ahead of the Red Sox. The Yankees
have seven All-Stars, the Red Sox have one.

Sox officials said that Pedro Martínez' anticipated second opinion on his aching
right shoulder may end up being nothing more than the results from last week's
tests being sent to another doctor, most likely Anaheim Angels team physician
Dr. Lewis Yocum.

Pedro Martínez -- at least arguably the
most valuable player in baseball -- has made his annual visit to the disabled
list, and this time it seems a little more serious than usual. Rather than words
like "side" and "oblique muscle," this time the doctors have
used much scarier words: "rotator cuff." ...

Now that the Sawx may have to go
several weeks without Martínez, how will they fare? With three legitimate star
hitters and a deep starting rotation, they seem to be better equipped for such a
situation than they've ever been.

There were boos when Manny Ramirez
stepped into the cage for batting practice at Jacobs Field last night. ...

"My fans are in Boston," said
Ramirez. "I have nothing to worry about. ... I'm in Boston now. I miss my
teammates and my friends, but I have friends here now. I'm 29 years old. It was
time to move on. I wanted to go to Boston to be my own man. People didn't think
I'd go. But me going to Boston was a big challenge. I wanted to let people know
what kind of person I am."

All he ever wanted was a little peace
and quiet. He should have told us. ... When I played here it was relaxed,"
said Ramirez, smiling at ease while surrounded by the media in the visitors'
dugout. "But over here it's all business. There is not a lot of loud music
or playing around. It's all about winning. It's about going out to beat
somebody."

Typically unaffected and
characteristically oblivious, Manny Ramirez returned to Jacobs Field last night,
his one-time home transformed into a cauldron of emotion. Some fans cheered him.
Most fans booed. And if Ramirez even bothered to notice, he certainly did not
let it show.

Now that the All-Star starters have
been announced, and the Japan-Kroger plot to avenge the memory of Gus Bell has
been thwarted, let's take a shot at figuring the rest of the AL and NL All-Star
teams. Note: I'm not talking about "deserving" here; I'm just playing
the home version of the game Bobby Valentine and Joe Torre are playing for real.

If anyone can be billed as an expert on
the health of brilliant pitching arms, it's Sandy Koufax. ... Koufax was in town
yesterday ... He also watches plenty of baseball, and rates Martínez among the
handful of pitchers he enjoys the most.

In the absence of Pedro Martínez, the
Red Sox expanded their pitching staff from 11 to 12 last week. Given that Martínez
is indisputably irreplaceable, the decision suggested that the Sox
would try to overcome the loss of their ace through an even greater distribution
of labor.

Manny Ramirez returns to Cleveland
tonight as a loquacious cleanup hitter for the Boston Red Sox. When Ramirez
strides to the plate for his first at-bat, he should be booed - but only if the
bases are loaded in the first inning and he appears poised to deposit Jake
Westbrook's next pitch into the barbecue pit for his 14th career grand slam.

All indications are Pedro Martínez won't be sent for a second opinion on his ailing right shoulder until the
residual pain from last week's arthrogram subsides. Martínez is currently on the
15-day disabled list. When he is ready to be re-examined, Martínez is expected
to fly out to California to see Anaheim Angels physician Dr. Lewis Yocum, who
once performed rotator-cuff surgery on Pedro's brother, Ramon.

This is baseball's version of "The
Big One," a cultural contribution courtesy of Redd Foxx and that old hit TV
show, "Sanford and Son." ... As the euphoria of Rolando Arrojo's
magnificent fill-in performance subsides, Pedro's pain is the real Big One for
the Red Sox, the first time it is not overreacting to wonder if this is the
injury could leave Martínez as something less than he has been.

They talk daily by phone, two of the
greatest pitchers their island nations ever produced: Pedro Martínez, the
Dominican ace who was home in Boston nursing his ailing shoulder, and Rolando
Arrojo, the Cuban defector who yesterday was answering an urgent plea to fill Martínez's colossal void.

''Pedro wished me luck,'' Arrojo said
through interpreter Ramon Rodriguez of his most recent chat with Martínez. ''And
I dedicated the game to Pedro.''

There was no definitive word about
Pedro Martínez's desire for a second opinion, but apparently the three-time Cy
Young Award winner isn't planning to throw for a while. Martínez, who has been
diagnosed with inflammation of the right rotator cuff, might not play catch
until Friday, when the Sox return home for their final series before the
All-Star break, a three-game set with the Atlanta Braves.

Is there cause for concern with Pedro?
Hell, yes. Though the Sox have repeatedly said that tests on the pitcher's
tender right shoulder have revealed no tear in the rotator cuff, Martínez recently told friends that he may have avoided a tear by the slimmest of
margins.

Amajority of Red Sox fans feel manager
Jimy Williams has been a big plus this season. Some claim Jimy's the reason
Boston's been in first place most of the first half, and that he's getting the
most out of a mediocre team hard hit by key injuries.

As the Red Sox near the halfway point
of this season, they are right in the thick of the AL East race, despite
numerous key injuries ... I've decided to take this time to evaluate the team,
player by player, starting with the position players, and I hope to bring out a
few little known or little realized facts.